Twelve collage artists respond to an American state of emergency, with inspiration from master political artist John Heartfield.

The famous British art collector, historian, and graphic designer David King wrote that John Heartfield was “the greatest political artist and graphic designer of the 20th century.”

For the November issue, Topic joined forces with artist Michael Tunk (the artist behind the image to the right, entitled “Well Done”) and asked 11 other contemporary creators to submit political collages commenting on the current political climate in the United States. Though some used Heartfield’s works as direct inspiration for their own pieces, all were influenced by his flair for marrying the tragic, comic, and bracingly uncomfortable.

John Heartfield’s grandson, the curator of The John Heartfield Exhibition, knows his grandfather’s photomontages were not simply reactions to fascism, but warnings. They were a roadmap to how fascism rises when its opposition is weak. “My grandfather understood that one of the strongest tools of fascism was propaganda, the unchallenged ability to distribute nonsense in the media to discredit facts.”

Heartfield’s grandson built and maintains The John Heartfield Exhibition as living tribute to his grandfather’s legacy. It is also a growing online museum to display art and artists with integrity, courage, and compassion. You can help promote “art as a weapon” against fascism and senseless war by purchasing great items from the The John Heartfield Exhibition Shop or contributing even a small amount to help the exhibition continue to grow.

It Moves Around Me

The Butterfly Effect of Tiny Hands ...

Some Very Fine People

War Machine

It Moves Around Me

Young took inspiration from Heartfield’s photomontage An Insane Ape on Top of the World. Yet It Moves!, which depicts Hitler as an ape squatting on a spinning globe, sword in hand.

“My piece depicts President Trump as Donald McRonald, an oafish man-clown who juggles missiles while dancing atop a globe, devastation whirling around his feet in the form of a hurricane of his own making,” says Young. “A halo of gold stars circles his head, calling to mind the religious fanaticism of his supporters as well as the stars on the American flag.”

The Butterfly Effect of Tiny Hands ...

Weston says that he took visual cues for his piece from Heartfield's book-jacket photomontage for Kurt Tucholsky's 1929 book Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.

“I attempted to convey what is inherently terrifying and ridiculous about 45 and his young presidency,” he explains. “Cultural activism might only go so far, but we can look to Heartfield as a prompt to create work that continues to expose this administration's compassion deficit and the damages it continues to inflict.”

Some Very Fine People

The creative process around the piece yielded a few surprises, says Goodman, including her use of some of the same kinds of imagery that Heartfield used in his work.

“When I set out to make a collage expressing my feelings about the current political climate, I had no idea just how relevant Heartfield’s work would be,” she says. “KKK marchers are back, and Trump thinks they are some ‘very fine people.’ Our Capitol is starting to resemble a pointed hood. Our leader is more evil, greedy, and graceless than I could have imagined possible in this day and age.”

War Machine

MICHAEL TUNK

“War Machine”

Vintage books and magazines, glue, and adhesive tape roller

Tunk, whose previous work for Topic includes the hilarious Baby Boy Trump's First 100 Days: A Scrapbook,” says that his piece, inspired by Heartfield’s Everywhere in the country where Death passes, he harvests hunger, war, and fire, depicts “death overflowing with bombs, rockets, and missiles, while drowning in a sea of the American flag ... to represent America not learning from the past, and just going forward to Armageddon.” Depressing, yes; but as Tunk points out, the United States has only been at peace for 21 years total since its birth.

“We have become a nation that supports and creates war on a global scale, with our hand in almost every war since WWII,” says the artist.